[R-pkg-devel] Very large packages in Additional_repositories

[Brian G. Peterson]

Why not add an install function to foyer that would get the large data package?
Have examples and vignette use a small test data set, so only end users would actually install the large data set.
Regards,
Brian


--Brian G. Peterson ph: 773-459-4973im: bgpbraverockSent from my mobile, please excuse my brevity. 

-------- Original message --------
From: Hugh Parsonage <hugh.parsonage at gmail.com> 
Date: 3/19/18  07:11  (GMT-06:00) 
To: R-package-devel <r-package-devel at r-project.org> 
Subject: [R-pkg-devel] Very large packages in Additional_repositories 

Dear list,

I'm considering submitting a package to CRAN. The package would be a
'foyer' or API to a much larger package (>1GB tarball) containing
geographical data that the 'foyer' package would use to perform tasks
like geocoding. The foyer package would be usable, though quite
limited, as a standalone package, and I can technically pass an R CMD
check by placing the 1 GB package in Suggests and using an
Additional_repository, but it takes a long time to retrieve and
install from the Additional_repository. While I believe the downside
of long install times would be acceptable for end-users (who would
only need to install the package once a year), for CRAN it could
occupy a large part of the check farm and have to occur much more
frequently.

The package once installed makes good use of lazy loading; in
particular, it would be basically unusable if the CRAN package had to
connect and download the necessary pieces from the large package each
time it was required. I thought about breaking up the package into
lots of little packages; however, even though the package is not
strictly atomic, its indivisible elements would still be too large for
CRAN.

My questions are:
  would this 'foyer' package be acceptable to CRAN? and, if so,
  what can I do so that the foyer package doesn't eat up CRAN's
computing resources (either on submission or once accepted) when
checking Suggests:


Best,

Hugh.

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